Planning requires training

Language teachers are trained for classroom practice. However, their ability to plan courses and write teaching materials might be overlooked during their training. It is often what teacher as well as learners do in class that is of primary concern of training courses. Since courses are planned and materials written by course designers working for established publishing houses, teacher are supposed to focus their attention on lesson planning and execution of their lesson plans.

Nevertheless, at some points of their careers, language teachers might be faced with an opportunity to plan a brand new course and / or write appropriate materials. Doing so, however, requires specific skills as writing teaching materials differs from using teaching materials in practice. In order to plan a course and write materials one must become familiar with available tools and procedures that will facilitate the process of course creation (Dubin and Olshtain, 1990, p. 1).

There is a difference between planning one’s own teaching and planning a course that will be used by others. Let us have a look at an analogous example illustrating the difference between planning a lesson for oneself and doing the same for someone else. No one will deny that when planning a lesson the majority of information stays in the mind of the planner since it is pointless putting it down on paper. In other words the majority of teaching takes place thanks to the skill of a teacher and the plan simply supports the teaching and often merely serves to jog the teacher’s memory. It is a totally different ballgame when one is supposed to plan for another teacher, let alone an unknown audience of teachers. The point is that there are a number of factors to take into consideration when planning a course and writing materials for other teachers to use. Dubin and Olshtain suggest that one needs to use “a different frame of reference, to acquire new perspectives.”   

Dubin, Fraida, and Elite Olshtain. Course Design: Developing Programs and Materials for Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1986. Print.